Environmentally-friendly heating network created by Woolpit company set to be installed at major development near Sudbury

A sustainable and environmentally-friendly heating network, manufactured by a company in Woolpit, is to be created at a large scale development on the fringes of Sudbury.

The project at Chilton Woods will eliminate the need for gas boilers at all future phases of the new homes being built by Taylor Wimpey.

Working in partnership with utility provider GTC, the developer will create a community heat hub that will use large-scale air source heat pumps to supply the new homes with heat and hot water. Carbon emissions will be reduced by around 80 per cent compared to traditional gas heating.

Networks of this kind are rarely used on traditional low-rise housing developments, and Taylor Wimpey anticipates that the heating network at Chilton Woods will act as a low-carbon solution that may be used elsewhere around the country.

A planning application for the heat hub was approved by Babergh District Council’s planning committee on Wednesday, December 14. This means that the majority of the 1,150 homes at the development will have no need for a gas supply.

Stephen Andrew, group technical director at Taylor Wimpey, said: “As we move towards the  Future Homes Standard (FHS) in 2025 and the introduction of low carbon heating with no natural gas, the network heat pump offers an innovative solution to meet FHS. Whilst this was previously used in dense high rise apartment schemes, this pioneering approach offers the opportunity to provide community heating to other types of residential developments, including family homes.

“We are pleased to be trialling the GTC community heat network at Chilton Woods and we hope that local residents will feel the benefit of the move towards low-carbon living.”

Babergh’s Planning Committee chairman Stephen Plumb said: “Chilton Woods is a hugely significant development, not just because of the much-needed housing but also the future employment, facilities and infrastructure it will provide for Sudbury and Babergh. This heat hub is an excellent model of how developers can reduce the carbon emission of the homes they are building – we welcome this addition of the Chilton Woods development and the contribution this makes to our vision of communities our residents are proud to call home.

“We look forward to supporting the creation of this new community within our district over coming years and the benefits it will bring to the local area.”

Business and Energy Minister Lord Callanan said: “Heat networks using heat pumps are cutting emissions and helping us take charge of our energy security. Low carbon heat networks can help households and businesses move away from expensive fossil fuels. Systems like this one developed by GTC will accelerate the rollout of the technologies we need  to achieve this.”

GTC chief operating officer John Marsh added: “Taylor Wimpey’s take-up of our Central Heat Hub evidences GTC’s support of house builders’ ongoing journey with sustainable new homes and achieving the Future Homes Standard. Our part is to provide an alternative to natural gas, and there has been a great sharing of ideas with the team at Taylor Wimpey.

“We are effectively replacing a gas network with a heat network. To maximise the benefit of a central hub, large-scale heat pumps sit alongside thermal stores, meaning we can buy electricity at good value in off-peak hours and store this as hot water for when homes need it. We pass savings on to home owners.

“One further outcome is immensely important: carbon emissions are reduced by around 80%. Taylor Wimpey is playing a leading role in grasping the benefits of replacing gas with heat, especially from a central source.”

Chilton Woods has outline planning permission for 1,150 new homes, a quarter of which will be designated as “affordable” for rent or shared ownership, as well as land for a new primary school with pre-school facilities on the site, a village centre with new shops and community hall. A significant proportion of the site will be allocated as green space.

Planning permission for the first phase of 200 new homes, known as Maidenfields was granted in March 2021, with the first homes going on sale in September 2021. Homes on this phase are being built with gas boilers.

Plans for the second phase of 243 homes were approved in November 2022 and an application for the third phase of 149 homes was put to public consultation in September 2022.

Established in 1995, GTC is the UK’s largest independent provider of multi-utility networks and  infrastructure to the new-build market. It designs, installs, adopts, owns and operates network infrastructure for all utilities – heat, electricity, gigabit-capable fibre broadband, water, wastewater and gas – across England, Scotland  and Wales.

GTC is part of the BUUK Infrastructure Group, which employs more than 1,800 people and operates  networks serving more than 1.7 million homes. For more information about the company go to www.gtc-uk.co.uk